KEY POINTS:
New Zealand is the 13th most taxed country of 30 in the OECD, a new survey by the Paris-based organisation shows.
New Zealand tax gatherers hoover up 38 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product).
However, the Revenue Statistics report showed New Zealand's tax burden fell over one percentage point between 2005 and 2006, one of three countries in the group to experience a fall.
Sweden is the most taxed nation with tax collectors taking in 51 per cent of GDP while Mexico at 20 per cent is the least taxed.
Australia was the eighth lowest taxing country of the 30 industrialised nations.
The latest edition of the OECD's Revenue Statistics, which reports on combined annual revenue collection at federal, state and local government levels showed New Zealand's tax gathering increased one percentage point as a proportion of GDP in the decade to 2005.
Australia's rose 2 percentage points.
In 2006, tax burdens as a proportion of GDP rose in 14 of the 26 countries for which provisional figures are available.
The average tax burden in the 30 countries reached 36.2 per cent of GDP in 2005, up from 35.5 per cent in 2004 and level with the historical high of 36.2 per cent recorded in 2000.
The latest figures showed a slight increase in the proportion of revenue collected through general consumption taxes, which take the form of value added taxes (VAT, GST) throughout the OECD except in the United States and some Canadian provinces.
These averaged out at the equivalent of 6.9 per cent of GDP in OECD countries in 2005, up from 6.8 per cent in 2004 and 6.7 per cent in 2000 .
Over a 40 year time span, however, figures show no widespread shift in the tax burden from direct to indirect taxes, contrary to some public perceptions, because growth in VAT/GST revenues has been mirrored by an even greater reduction in specific consumption taxes, mainly excise duties.
- NZPA
